Choosing a secondary school: the moment of truth

Secondary school offers go out to families this week.
Joanna Moorhead talks to parents about their choices

Jake Herring and his mum, Joanna McDonnell, at home in Didsbury, Manchester. Jake is waiting to see if he gets in to the secondary school of his choice. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian Christopher Thomond/Guardian

This week there will be celebrations for some families – and disappointment for others – as thousands of children find out if they've got into the secondary school of their choice. But how do parents make decisions about where to send their children to school? What are they looking out for when they visit? And what kind of things put them off?

Here, parents of three year 6 children from Beaver Road primary in Didsbury, Manchester, talk about their choices for secondary education and headteachers respond to their opinions on the schools they have applied to.

Parrs Wood high school

• Mixed comprehensive; 1,900 pupils

• 2012 GCSE results: 69% five passes at A*-C including maths and English

• Places allocated based on proximity to school among applicants from within the area covered by Manchester city council

Jake sat the exams for the grammar schools, including Sale grammar, and he passed them so he'd probably get a place – but after a lot of deliberation we decided not to pursue it. It's a very strong school academically, but what put me off is that the children come from a much wider geographical area, and there's not such a sense of community as there is at our local comprehensive, Parrs Wood.

Some parents like the idea of the grammars having great results, but they would, wouldn't they? If you select the most able pupils, you should get the best results.

I feel a mixed comprehensive represents society better than a selective school – it's going to prepare Jake for any environment he ends up in, and that's certainly a good thing.

We didn't look at WHGS – it's a good school, but it's not close and is so over-subscribed we thought the chances of Jake getting in were very limited anyway.

William Hulme's grammar school (WHGS)

• Former independent school, an academy since 2007

• 1,005 pupils aged from three to 18; both primary and secondary classes are on the same site

• 2012 GCSE results: 77% five passes at A*-C including maths and English

• Places allocated partly on distance, with provision for some to come from out of area

I liked the selective schools, but the logistics were difficult. I've got two younger children and I'd like them to go to the same school as Tayyibah – and with a selective school, you obviously couldn't be sure that would be the case.

The main school I compared WHGS with was Parrs Wood. It's much bigger and I felt my child would be lost in a school that size. At WHGS I felt each child was important – and though they said that was also the case at Parrs Wood, I didn't really believe it was true. There's no way the head there could know the name of all the pupils – but at WHGS he really does.

WHGS presented itself better than Parrs Wood – it had a more professional approach. At the Parrs Wood open day there seemed to be children just hanging around. The staff were also a lot more enthusiastic at WHGS.

Sale grammar school

• 11-18 co-educational academy trust grammar school

• 1,260 students

• 2012 GCSE results: 97% five or more passes at A*-C including maths and English

Alice is a very bright girl and she has passed the exam for Sale grammar, which is an amazing achievement. It doesn't mean she's definitely got a place, because there are other criteria, but we know she'll do well at Sale if she gets in. It's a very academically strong school and will give her a better chance of getting into a good university.

We looked at both Parrs Wood and WHGS. Parrs Wood was in special measures a few years ago, but it has got a lot better – it's not in a bad area and it gets reasonable results at GCSE. But Sale gets much better results than that; it's one of the best state schools in the country.

WHGS is also a high-performing school, but our worry is that because it's now an academy and open to all, the results will go downhill.

What the headteachers say

Andy Shakos Head of Parrs Wood high school

This is a big school, but it's certainly not the case that pupils get lost here. While I may not be able to name all the students, I'm very visible to them: I'm on break duty every day, and I'm out and about talking to the students. And while we're numerically big, that means we have more staff – pupils are known to staff who deal with them. It also means there's lots on offer for pupils: we have 54 after-school clubs here including maths, science, debating and sports clubs.

Being a large school with lots of staff also means we're here for all our pupils: the staff can challenge the most able and support those who need it.

And our results speak for themselves: in last year's A-levels, 34% of grades were A* or A. Around 91% of students got into their first choice of university, five went to Oxbridge and several others to medical school.

We had a different sort of open day this year, and I don't think our marketing was as good as it should have been. It wasn't a staged event, it was the school as it is every day and if students were seen hanging around, it certainly wasn't because they should have been in lessons. In terms of staff commitment, I'd challenge you to find staff as enthusiastic as mine.

Peter Mulholland Head of William Hulme's grammar school

We're definitely an over-subscribed school – there are more than 1,000 applications for 95 places. But it worries me that parents think it's not worth applying, because the whole idea of being an academy is that we're accessible.

I can understand the concern that now we're an academy rather than an independent school, standards will drop. But we've worked very hard to ensure that we offer the pupils just as much as we did before. On the concern that academic standards might fall – again I can understand why parents might be worried, but we've just had the first GCSE results of children who've gone right through from year 7 since we became an academy, and they're virtually as they were before.

Mark Smallwood Head of Sale grammar school

There are no excuses for not pushing children to reach the best grades they're capable of. We know how to get the best out of our pupils.

I understand the worries some parents have about pushiness – but we don't push pupils beyond what they're able to soak up.

I have some sympathy with parents who are put off because there isn't a sibling advantage in the applications process, but we wouldn't be a grammar school if we had that. The whole point is that we select children for whom this is the right environment, not children whose siblings are here.

We're more of a local school than people might think. Around a third of the pupils here walk to school. But those who do choose to travel here are valuing something different about what we offer, and that's fine.